Friday, April 17, 2009

I made Sprinkles' Strawberry Cupcakes with a strawberry cream cheese frosting. I missed the farmer's market and used frozen strawberries to make the puree. I think fresh would have given more of a strawberry punch.

I also made some Cinnamon Blueberry Muffins (recipe from July 2006/Gourmet on Epicurious). See those brown cupcake holders? Well, you can win a package of them that I picked up at Surfas. How many in that package? 600. Yes, six-hundred. That's a zillion of those little packs you get from the grocery store. If you should win, I hope you either make a ton of cupcakes and muffins or share with others!

Some people have asked if I'm eating all these baked goods myself...oh no! Reason #100293 why the library is a great place...it has lots of hungry co-workers who eat lots of desserts! And yes, this does generate a bunch of goodwill at work. ;)

Today's library thing...programs! Do you like knitting? watching movies? local history? genealogy? selling everything you own on eBay? Perhaps your library has a program about your favorite hobby or interest. Libraries today are reaching out to the community with a plethora of programs for kids, teens, adults and seniors. Most people know about storytime for kids, but did you know that a chess club might be meeting at the library as well? Or a seminar on identity theft? Check out your library's website for a listing of programs and opportunities. You might be surprised that it isn't just storytime anymore!

Here is today's language lesson: kawaii (ka - wa- EEEEeeeee) is the Japanese word for cute. Since I'm Japanese American, I'm genetically drawn to all things cute. (So that probably explains my obsession with the miniature treats!)

And what is more kawaii than Hello Kitty?! For today's giveaway, you can win a Hello Kitty stationery pack with 5 different papers and envelopes, candies, pencils and eraser. (Librarian Action Figure and rice (!!) not included)

To celebrate my last day of National Library WeekDay 5, I'm giving away the following to one lucky winner:a. Hello Kitty Assortment of kawaii stationery and candyb. 600 (six-hundred!!!) brown cupcake holders (2 inch standard)c. Handmade beaded bookmark (designed by the Food Librarian!)d. Disneyland book bag

This is your last chance to win! To enter the Day 5 Giveaway, simply leave a comment below (one entry per person) and I'll pick the winner from a hat. Deadline: Monday, April 20, 2009 at midnight PDT. If your comment isn't linked to a blog where I can find you, please leave your email or check back on Tuesday, April 21st to see if you won. Shipping to U.S. addresses only.

Don't forget to enter the daily giveaways to celebrate National Library Week!Day 1 Giveaway for mini-cake pans, Day 2 Giveaway for mini-loaf pans, Day 3 Giveaway for Trader Joe's Favorites, and Day 4 Giveaway for mini-tart pans. Deadline for all giveaways is Monday, April 20, 2009!

Thank you for visiting my little blog and celebrating National Library Week with me!!! I really enjoyed hearing your library stories - Jen F. cracked me up with: We love ours not only for my crazy book habit, but also for the DVDs for my son--it's a great way to keep up with his ever-changing interests, and as a bonus, we get to get rid of the really annoying DVDs after a week!

Special thanks to my co-workers who loaned me their Librarian Action Figure (Patty, Susan, Andrea, Karen, Jessica and Sue), and my friends who helped make the bookmarks (Agnes, Julie and Sumi)!

Whew. I'm exhausted. Good thing this is only once a year!

What are you still doing here? Get out there and visit your library! :) - mary the food librarian

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comments:

Ah! exhausting indeed......so much baking! Those cupcakes look great! I am wondering if you could have used strawberry preserves (increased quantity than pureed strawberries) and reduced the sugar in your frosting if you wanted more strawberry punch. Anyway, that may have ruined the texture! I want to thank you for the wonderful giveaways, the fact that you celebrated National Library week with such enthusiasm & sweets;-). You have succeeded in increasing the awareness. I have always admired the library system here in the US. They are an indispensible part of our lives here. My husband & I plan to eventually open at least one library after our retirement when we return to India. To give the gift of books to kids and open the world up is like no other. We had few resources, just the school library when we were growing up and we would exhaust the collection:-).Thanks again, great job!

The cupcakes and muffins look so good! I was going to make sprinkles cupcakes, but I heard bad reviews about them. Yours look really light so I might give them a try!

By the way, in high school, our librarian used to have a huge traffic light that was a little bigger than half the person. Whenever it got too loud, she would start flashing the red light to get everyone to be quiet! At that time, I used to think it was annoying.. but now I love how quiet a library is. I can't stand it when people talk in the library.. haha.. give me earplugs!

Strawberry cupcakes!!! I can't wait to make them. Gosh I'd be exhausted too if I were you! But I will be making my weekly trip to the library tomorrow, so excited! Thanks for posting all week, such great recipes and reminding us to get to the library and appreciate our great librarians!

In between visits to your blog I did visit the library. LOLActually, I volunteer and love, love, love my library.And I love these cupcake liners too.Thanks for the chance to win them.Michellehttp://oneordinaryday.wordpress.com/

I am really going to miss the librarian action figures. I think they should make special guest appearances on your blog in the future :) Both of those treats sound awesome, but I especially want to try the cinnamon blueberry muffins as I've never seen anything like them. I've been lusting after fun cupcake papers - great giveaway!

Having programs at a library is a wonderful thing - I never fully appreciated my public library until I started working there! I always did the book programs, but there really is SO much more to offer. I have taken quilting classes, learned about reptiles, and also had my taxes done - all at the public library! Thanks for a wonderful week!

The cinnamon blueberry muffins look great. Arigato gozaimashita for a lovely series of posts. I visit my local library every week and I'm heading there my now: there's nothing like that automated phone call from the library that goes "Our records show that we have something on hold for you." :-)

Thank you for doing such a sweet week-long giveaway! My old local library partnered up with the LA Opera so there are opera talks there every month. It's great. I've many a happy memory growing up in libraries, helping the librarians stamp "due date" on those big white labels! Thanks for all you do.

wow, i am constantly running out of those stinking cupcake liners. 600 would keep me set for awhile :)

thanks for such a great week of giveaways as well as all the information on libraries. i'm a huge fan of libraries (amazon.com what? barnes and noble what?) and am glad you shared with others how much there is to offer! :)

Im going to have to deseed some strawberries and make these this weekend! I was just at our local (to work) library with a friend of mine to pick up something for her daughter. I forgot just how cool libraries are.

This year alone we've attended a Lego building contest, a Native American dance and a history of hip hop dance performance, and while I haven't yet taken it they offer a book repair class that I am dying to take.

Thanks again for all the great contests. Can't wait to make those cinnamon blueberry muffins

Just picked up my son from our library's "Teen Cafe" program. I can't say enough about the library. I enjoy reading about your baking progress. These cupcakes look great- I think I hear some strawberries calling my name!

hi mary!! holy smokes, happy national library week!!! i love what you're doing with your photography + text, looks super beautiful and professional and still fun... loving the plethora of posts... the strawberry cupcakes look SO YUM.

What a cool week: treats, giveaways, and wonderful library reminders. I've had jobs in a public library, a high school library, and a college library. Not to mention the millions of books that we've borrowed over the years. My dad was a used book dealer in his retirement years, so suffice it to say: we love books and libraries too!! I still straighten books up to the front edge of the bookshelves...Thanks for the cool week.Nancy

I stumbled upon your blog via foodgawker, and I am absolutely amazed and beyond hungry at all of the beautiful, delicious food! Yummy!

I am a school librarian, and I am currently holding a month-long celebration for the students at the junior high where I work. They enjoy their daily trivia questions, and I have seen a great amount more traffic because of it!

I love all of the great prizes that you are offering, and would love to win any of them! I have my own Nancy Pearl action figure proudly displayed at work, and the kids are all jealous of her amazing shushing action!!!

These cupcakes look great! I got flowers, a cake, brownies and my FAV~a card that plays the "hamster dance" song from my teachers for Library Week. We did the Hamster Dance live on the am announcements~too much fun!

What a great presentation of everything (as always)! I just wish I could reach up in the screen and taste one of the cupcakes. Thanks for baking all this week, and thanks for recognizing national library week!

the librarians were getting a little frisky the other day, with those tartlet pans...I expected to seem them full of cosmos or something! It's been so much fun to see what you've been baking and what the shushing sisterhood has been up to...great posts - thanks for the fun!Audrey

Hello, I would love to win because I could really use the cupcake papers because I am making 200 cupcakes for a friend's wedding and I love Hello Kitty, it's just so cute! Thank you for this chance! great blog:)

I've been reading your blog for a couple weeks now and I keep thinking of my sister who recently moved to L.A. and is now in her second year of teaching second grade AND loves all baked goods. We keep emailing recipes back and forth, trying to find the ones that we are going to make in the little time we get to see each other. Thanks for wonderful recipes!-afawnday@gmail.com

love hello kitty...makes me think of saving up my allowance and using it all at the hello kitty store :) i didn't know surfas had the brown cupcake liners, the owner of vanilla bake shop said she had them specially made, hmm.

Hi! I found your site through JustJENN and I love what I've read so far. Can I ask a quick photography question? Do you use different colored backdrops? Or somehow colorize the background of your photos? I really like the look. I'm an absolute beginner when it comes to photographing my baked stuff! Thanks!

What a fabulous and generous giveaway you're having!! Can we talk about how good your cupcakes look? Amazing, just amazing! I'm on a huge strawberry kick right now, so I'm sorely tempted to skip my classes and head into the kitchen to make these. Oh, and those cinnamon blueberry muffins--divine! Cinnamon is my favorite spice!

Reading the post I wished Surfas carried brown cupcake papers- I see that they do! I can't buy 600 at a time but winning them would be grand! Gotta try the strawberry cupcakes because your frosting sounds much tastier.

I would just like to say that aside from your delicious looking treats, what I find really drew me in was my connection. I, too, work for my local library (a job I recently aquired I like to think because of my long time volunteer work for the children's programs- I'm 16). At the library, we have a woman much like yourself who always brings goodies to eat- and we adore her for this, and many other reasons! :)

The other thing that drew me in this post was the librarian action figure! We have one at our front desk recently too! However, I have a question- does yours look as though she's picking her nose when she's supposed to be Shushing? Ours does... How silly!

Thank you for your blog, it certainly brightened my day during this rainy cloudy evening.

Jami, Thanks for stopping by! Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. For these pictures I used my new Lowel Ego light set (two lights and a background - Lowel E1-92 Ego Two Light Set). I got it on Amazon. It comes with big construction paper background (when you get it, you'll be like "I could make this" - but you don't have time or the big paper...so just buy it! That's my suggestion. :) I'm still trying to figure out the lights, but they helped when I was working late at night or early morning. I don't do much messing around with the photos after taking them. I use Flickr to add the text/fonts. I have been getting a few questions about the photos so I might do a post about my trial and error photo taking. Anyway, hope this helps! Email me if you have other questions! :) - mary the food librarian.